Flames 4, Red Wings 1

Associated Press

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -Miikka Kiprusoff already has Calgary's franchise record shutout streak. His big victory over the Detroit Red Wings was more important.

Kiprusoff narrowly missed another shutout, Kristian Huselius had a goal and an assist and the Flames beat Detroit 4-1 Friday night for their sixth straight victory.

Matthew Lombardi, Daymond Langkow and Dion Phaneuf also scored for Calgary. Alex Tanguay had two assists for the fourth consecutive game.

Detroit had won nine straight.

Kiprusoff stopped 29 shots for his ninth win of the season. He ran his shutout streak to 160 minutes, 27 seconds, just short of his franchise record of 161:11 set last season.

"It's tough time to lose a shutout that late in the game, but it's two points and that's what counts," said Kiprusoff, whose streak ended when Dan Cleary scored for Detroit with 41 seconds left in the game.

Huselius has goals in three straight games and Chuck Kobasew had two assists to stop a nine-game pointless streak.

Huselius scored his sixth goal of the season on a power play at 7:13 in the first period. Kobasew tipped a point shot by Roman Hamrlik wide of the net, and Huselius picked up the puck on his forehand before quickly backhanding the puck into an open net behind a fallen Dominik Hasek.

Lombardi scored the Flames' second power-play goal at 16:02 to make it 2-0, backhanding a perfect shot over Hasek.

"One team was a lot more competitive than the other team tonight and the team that was most competitive won, no question," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "They were way more physical, they were more competitive, and they won all the battles. It's a pretty simple game - the team that wins the most battles usually wins the game and they won way more battles tonight."

Kiprusoff made 10 saves in the opening period. He denied Detroit forward Mikael Samuelsson four times, the best one a glove grab off a one-timer from the slot during a power play.

The Flames added to their lead at 1:11 of the second period when Langkow converted a pass from Jarome Iginla.

"We knew coming into the game they were one of the hottest teams in the Western Conference right now and it was a challenge for us," Kobasew said. "Jarome, Daymond, and Alex have been playing really well for us and it's important for the second, third, and fourth lines to contribute and chip in with some goals and we were able to do that tonight and it helped out."

Notes: The Red Wings have put together nine-game winning streaks six times, but they've never been able to win 10 in a row. ... With an assist on Langkow's goal, Iginla extended his point-scoring streak to seven games. ... For Detroit, Cleary and Niklas Lidstrom extended their point-scoring streaks to five games.